So before I begin telling this story, I want to make one thing perfectly clear for if my girlfriend is reading this, THIS DIDN’T COST ME A DIME. Keep reading below and you will see why, call it a trade in and in fact, I came out way ahead of the game and had a couple hundred left over after the purchase…
So, I have been flying R/C Airplanes and to a degree, Helicopters, since I was a teen (I’m in my 50’s now) and while I would say I am a fair to pretty good pilot with Airplanes and gliders, I suck at Helicopters. I have done the Simulators training (RealFlight G3.5) but can’t seem to get much past basic flight with Helicopters. I can hoover and maneuver fine but 3D flight (tricks) is beyond my capabilities.
That being said, I have been looking into and reading as much as I can on Quadcopters and find them fascinating. The real thrill for me is aerial filming and photography. Strapping a high res camera to the top of one of those and then grabbing some video is very appealing. So, I made the jump, I sold two of my helicopters on kijiji and purchased the Storm Drone-4 from www.Helipal.com and I have to say, I am very pleased with the purchase.
What you see above is the Storm Drone-4, it is the newest variant of the Storm Drone. They have made a few modifications to it, changing up the motors for more thrust so it can carry more payload, they are also lighter also the props have been swapped out for the carbon fiber ones. The radio that you see is the Devention DEVO-7, that same radio actually comes with it if you get the RTF version, in my case, I got the platform only cause I already had the radio and receiver, in fact, I had a few to choose from but went with the DEVO-7 cause the instructions for set-up were already available.
It came mostly assembled in that it included prebuilt arms with motors, speed controllers and props (pre balanced) already assembled. All I needed to do was to solder the connections for my receiver and gyro board (came with the Storm FF Gyro) which has an industrial grade micro 6-Axis Gyro (Three axis sensor, Three accelerometer). They say it is extremely sensitive, able to pick up the slightest movement, it is constantly monitoring all three axis which makes the Storm Drone 4 very stable. I have to admit, it is very stable for a fly by stick craft. I will eventually upgrade to a new board, probably the DJI Naza-M Lite Multirotor Gyro System w/ GPS but for now, till I learn how to fly it, I will stick with what I have. Honestly it flies more like a coaxial rotor than a helicopter, very stable.
This image was taken from the site, it shows the two screw fastening for the props. This is in fact a very cool system as it keeps the props perfectly centered. Very important for a Quad as non-centered props will cause vibration and that is the last thing you want for aerial filming.
Here is a little video (not mine) of the original Storm Drone in action. The pilot has a GoPro HERO HD camera mounted to it taking some great aerial footage. Again, this is the original and not the 4th incarnation but it gives you an idea of the stability of the ship and again, this is fly by stick, no GPS stabilization. The uses of this thing, for me, are boundless. So far I have taken it out for a test run only once and it was a fairly windy day, winds gusting up to 20 kph. Even with the gusts, it held fairly solid in the wind and I really only had one hard landing where it flipped on approach. No damage to anything though, a testament of the durability of the craft. So, I am very happy with this and I think I will get a lot of use out of it, my son thinks it’s, according to him “AWESOME” 
Don’t take my word or even my son’s word, instead, have a look at this video, if this does not sell you on the possibilities of Quads I don’t know what will.
Published on 11 Jun 2013
In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D’Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of nifty demos, D’Andrea show drones that play catch, balance and make decisions together — and watch out for an I-want-this-now demo of Kinect-controlled quads.
More reviews to come as I get more experienced with it, hopefully a few videos too !
UPDATE: So after flying this for the summer I still have not changed my opinion of this multi-rotor at all. Throughout the winter months I will put some upgrades on it like the GPS V2 from DJI Naza and of course a GoPro camera, maybe if I can afford it, a gyro stabilizer for the camera. But if you do not plan on mounting a camera on this then you don’t need the GPS stabilization at all, it flies very well with out and is very easy to control.
Drew - Just a Rant 